


I'll Be Coming For Your Love, Okay

by Thette



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Deadpool References, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Multi, No Sex, Polyamory, Post-Oculus (DC's Legends of Tomorrow), Speed Force, Temporary Character Death, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 07:06:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14889887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thette/pseuds/Thette
Summary: After the Oculus, Leonard Snart keeps showing up in the Speed Force.(AKA the one where I wrote the "Kiss me like you miss me, Red" AU.)





	I'll Be Coming For Your Love, Okay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blue_wonderer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_wonderer/gifts).



> For the Coldwestallen Week Saturday prompt Superheroes. A Deadpool 2-inspired take on the Speed Force and the Oculus. Written for blue_wonderer's birthday. Feel free to listen to the acoustic, slow version of [Take On Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xKM3mGt2pE) when you read this. (That's where the title is from.)
> 
> Dialogue borrowed from 2x21 The Runaway Dinosaur, 3x16 Into the Speed Force, 3x23 Finish Line and 4x01 The Flash Reborn, and from Deadpool 2.
> 
> Thanks to my betas, [Sparroet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparroet/pseuds/Sparroet) and [SophiaCatherine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaCatherine/pseuds/SophiaCatherine)

_(A/N: Sorry not sorry for the meme.)_

"Those are your friends," not-really-Iris said. "They want you to come back."

"Can I?" Barry wanted to get rid of this farce, these parodies of people he loved.

"Of course. But if you do, it'll be without your powers." Not-Iris smiled beatifically.

"Take my hand! Do it!" Cisco screamed over the sound of the power vortex. That was probably the real Cisco, and not another test. Barry was tempted to join him. "Take my hand!"

"The choice is yours, Barry," not-Iris said.

That was when he knew. He had to follow the Speed Force's wishes, do whatever it wanted in this copied world. "Tell me what to do."

A speedster shadow passed by. "Run, Barry, run. Catch it."

Barry ran, faster than he'd ever run before. He chased the shadow, without ever getting closer. The whole world glowed in gold around him. Exhausted, he stopped. He didn't recognize this place. It was an old-fashioned study, with a globe and shelves full of artefacts. On the other side of a glass wall, he could see a high-tech room with cold, white-blue light.

On the floor, Leonard Snart was sprawling, half-sitting, half-lying, leaning back on his elbows and with one knee drawn up. He had exchanged the parka for a leather jacket, but still wore the goggles around his neck. "Imagine meeting you here, Barry," he said. "Here, at the end of all things."

Barry smiled. "Imagine. Of all the faces you could borrow, that one I didn't expect. Aren't you going to ask me to sit, like everyone else?"

"This face is all mine, I assure you. Sit, stand, I don't care." He gestured around the room, showing Barry the armchair in the corner and the chairs by the table. "Don't care much about physical comfort anymore."

Barry chose to lean on the table instead of sitting down. "What's your life lesson, then, Snart?"

Snart stretched his neck and avoided Barry's eyes. "I think that's more of a third date question, Red."

"I bought you that meal in Saints and Sinners, and then you had cocoa in my living room. I'd say this counts as a third date. If you were real."

Barry found himself under the intense scrutiny of Snart's direct gaze. He got up, all in one smooth movement, and started closing in on Barry. Barry held his position, refusing to be intimidated by Speed Force nonsense. Snart got close, really close, so close they could kiss if they wanted… But he didn't kiss him, just raised Barry's chin with his index and middle finger and looked into his eyes. Then he leaned in and half-whispered.

"Oh, I'm real. And I think you are too, which was unexpected." He backed up, but not much. Just so they could look at each other again. "Hello, real Barry. What are you doing in my afterlife?"

"What are _you_ doing in the Speed Force? And when did you _die_?" His voice may have broken a little on that last word.

"As I said, at the end of all things." His eyes glowed an unnatural blue. Barry could feel the tendrils of the Speed Force within him, how it wanted to make his eyes sparkle with lightning in return. "You can't stay here." He put his arms on the table, boxing Barry in with his body. "Do what you need to do. I'll be waiting. Your heart is not in the right place."

"Run, Barry, run," Snart said, as he turned away.

Barry missed his body heat, something he hadn't felt when he was around the other Speed Force people. He ran, chasing the blur.

***

"Not learning your lesson, Barry," said the Speed Force version of Leonard Snart, standing all too close. This imitation was cold, like the rest of them. No body heat. "You keep telling us one thing and then doing another."

Barry tried walking away through the gray-blue hospital corridor, but not-Snart started talking again. "You wanna know what inspired Leonard Snart to sacrifice himself? It was you, Barry Allen. You inspired him to be better. You inspired him to be selfless, to sacrifice himself for others, to be a hero, just like you." The words were just as sarcastic as they would have been if this had been the real Snart, and they hurt.

"I'm no hero. Not lately."

"So what? You've had enough, Scarlet Speedster? Time to hang up the cowl and give it all up? Well, if you're out, you're out." The cold gun whirred. Barry shouldn’t have missed that sound, but he had.

"I'm done fighting." 

"We know," the Speed Force said, "and that's exactly the problem." The cold gun fired, and hit him right in the chest, freezing him to the wall. "You think seeing Iris' death is hell? You ain't seen nothing yet." Not-Snart prepared his gun for another shot, but the wall behind him gave way, and Barry found himself dragged into another room.

It was the living room in Joe's house, decorated for Christmas and bathed in a golden glow. Another version of Snart sat huddled in an armchair, one foot resting on the other knee, with a reindeer mug in his hands. It was almost exactly like the time he had broken into Joe's house to warn Barry about Mardon and the Trickster, except that the parka was gone. Instead, he wore the same leather jacket he had worn when Barry last saw him, after his death, in the Speed Force.

"Ho, ho, ho," he said, drawing the syllables out. "Where's Iris?"

Barry shook his head. He was about ninety percent sure that this was the real Snart, again. "That's the problem. I'm trying to save her life, but I can't do it. And the Speed Force is angry with me for meddling with time."

Snart raised an eyebrow. "Time… Time is difficult. We don't have much of it. And I can see all of it." He sipped the cocoa, not bothering to comment about the lack of marshmallows. "Not entirely unlike that pale imitation out there."

"What do you mean?"

"Side effect of getting blown to pieces by the thing that controlled time and history. I can see all the timelines, all your choices, everything leading up to… Well… Spoilers. Needless to say, I have a vested interest in certain events. One of them being your marriage to the lovely Miss West."

This time, Barry didn't push Snart up against the fireplace. Instead, he sank down and sat cross-legged on the floor by Snart's feet. Like this, he could feel the heat from the other man's body. Real, then. Not a Speed Force mirage. "So, tell me. How do I save her?"

"Can't do that, Barry." No, Savitar would know, the moment he told Barry. "I can only give you this: Families give us a chance of being better than we used to be. Your family needs you."

Barry rested his forehead against Snart's knee, and felt a cautious hand stroking his hair. "That was cryptic."

"Sorry."

"No, you're not."

"I'm sorry for running out of time. I'll see you later, Barry Allen."

The room shattered, and Barry was in the hospital corridor again. Jay Garrick reached out for him. "Let's get you out of here!"

***

It had been one of the longest days in Barry's life. He felt the weight of the world on his shoulders as he walked up the stairs to his and Iris apartments. "Hey," he said, happy to see her and endlessly sad at the same time.

"Hey," she said with a sigh. "Thank you for saving Wally."

"Of course." He paused, trying to get to the hard part. "Um, so, I just... Look, you told me that you only wanted to marry someone because they love you and not because they were trying to save you, and I get that. I just, you know, I've lived with a lot of death, tragedy in my life, and seeing you die... It's impossible not to be consumed by that." This conversation felt like ripping his own heart out.

"Yeah, no, I get that. I do. It just it made me question if you were asking me for the right reasons, you know? If it was out of love or responsibility. But, look, while you were gone, I realized something. I don't have to doubt why you wanna marry me. It's the same reason that I wanna marry you." 

Barry just hummed in reply.

"I wanna be your wife, Barry."

"I love you. But, uh... You were right. I proposed because I thought it would save you. And today, I was told that our marriage needs to happen. And I can't do this. I can't marry you to save you, or to save Snart. I want to marry you because I love you, not for any other reason."

Iris looked confused and hurt. They were both crying now, silently. He sat beside her on the couch and hugged her, afraid she'd go away. "I love you so much. Let me beat Savitar, and then we can talk about this again. Just you and me, nobody else involved."

"I love you, too." She was quiet in his arms.

He breathed in her scent, basked in her warmth, felt the smooth skin of her hands under his fingertips. He tried enjoying this as much as he could, just in case… Saving up all of the things that were Iris, making memories that might have to last for the rest of his life.

After a while, she spoke up, her head still resting on his chest. "How can our marriage save Snart, of all people?"

"I met him, in the Speed Force. This is the second time we met after he died. And he was really there, not a Speed Force imitation like the others. He said our marriage needed to happen, that he had a 'vested interest' in it."

"Don't you think that's kinda creepy? Especially with his crush on you?"

"What?! He doesn't… No. No way."

Iris sat up, and looked at him like she did when she talked about his former girlfriends. "Yes way. He's always flirting with you. And you're flirting right back."

"This is new information to me, Iris. I can't believe you think... " She looked unimpressed. Barry laughed, and laid his head back on the couch. "Okay, so maybe it's fun to banter with him. And he wants to kill me less than many other people."

"Talk about low standards, Barry." Iris was laughing with him. "But he _is_ pretty hot, for a villain. When he's not wearing that ridiculous parka."

"He died a hero, Iris."

"I know. But apparently it didn't take."

"I guess not. But priorities. Let's save your life first, and take out Savitar. Then we can start getting Snart out of the Speed Force, or wherever he is."

***

Barry kissed Iris goodbye, pouring all his emotions into the kiss. "I gotta go," he said, crying. He reluctantly dropped his hands from Iris' face, and moved towards the image of his mother. He held her cold hand, and followed her into the Speed Force.

It wasn't a bad place to stay. He got to spend time with his parents, or something that looked a lot like them. He got to go home to his apartment, where Iris would meet him with a cold kiss. Sometimes, he even got to spend time with his friends, reliving the best moments of the last few years. Karaoke, movie nights, birthday parties. There was really nothing to complain about.

He walked the stairs up to the apartment, looking forward to spending time with Iris, but when he opened the door, Iris wasn't waiting for him. Snart was, curled up in the corner of the couch with a blanket over his knees and one of Barry's well worn paperbacks in his hands. Samuel Delaney's _Babel-17_ , he noticed. Golden light filled the apartment, seemingly centered on Snart.

"Hello, Barry."

Barry sat down next to his friend? Nemesis? Crush? Something. Snart put his feet up on Barry's thigh, and he could feel the warmth of the other man. Real, not a mirage. "Snart. We've got to stop meeting like this."

"That's the idea." He smirked. "You and me, we have a connection that spans across semi-mythical dimensions. Don't you think it's time to drop the last names?"

"You prefer Leonard?"

"No, _Bartholomew_. Call me Len." He looked at the book and turned a page.

"Len. Are we in a hurry?"

"You are always in a hurry. I can stay, here, in this moment. But it's not my time yet, and when I leave, I can't come back."

Barry smiled. "I've missed real people. Talk to me, Len. About anything, really." He shook his head. "As a prison for all of eternity, this is… Well, it's not hell. I could think of much worse places to do my penance. I just get lonely sometimes."

"Still planning to marry Iris?"

"If I ever come back, I will. But for all I know, thousands of years could have passed on the outside. My turn. Why do you care?"

"Timelines are a wonderful thing. They split, and merge, and get tangled, especially on a personal level. I can see them, Barry. I can't manipulate them, much. There are many where I come back. When I do, we're always tangled together, you and me. In different ways. Iris, too. The one with the most… favourable… outcome is one where you two get married."

"Favourable, huh. I thought…" He rubbed his neck, embarrassed. "So…" Might as well get this out in the open, if he was stuck here forever, and this was his only chance to talk to Len. "Iris thinks you have a crush on me."

Len looked amused, raising one eyebrow.

"And well, it might not be just you. So… You know… That's why I wonder why you want me with Iris."

"Miss West is a very perceptive woman, I'll give her that." He looked down at his hands and laced his fingers together. "She's formidable. Now that you're gone, she leads Team Flash, with compassion and authority." He smiled a soft smile, not his usual smirk. "In every timeline where I know her, I love you both. But we're only ever together if you're married first. That's why I need you to go back, Barry. Marry the love of your life, and save me."

Barry gasped. "This is too much, too much…"

"Your friends are opening a portal as we speak. You won't remember all of this, but you will need to take something back for me." He stood up, extending his hand to Barry.

Barry took his hand and got up. Len reeled him in, holding him close and grabbing him by the waist. His eyes were mesmerizing, and glowing a neon blue. One of his hands came up to caress Barry's cheek.

"Kiss me like you miss me, Red," he said.

Barry tilted his head and pulled Len in by the neck. Their lips met, and it was glorious. Soft lips, so soft, so warm. Just a press of lips, until Barry opened his mouth and took Len's lower lip between his. Len made a strangled sound and parted his lips, tongue seeking Barry's. Barry felt something flow between them, something too large to comprehend, something in his mind, something electric…

Len backed away a little. "Sorry, Barry," he said, softly, before kissing him again.

Barry felt his body getting dragged away through a portal, dizzy and still full of whatever came from the kiss. "Len…"

***

"The stars are raining, draining, paining…" Barry tried to get it all out, all the words, all the symbols, everything in his head, everything leading back to… What was he looking for? There was something, something…

From far away, Barry could hear Cisco talking about his symbols, but he didn't understand the words. He saw his friends make progress, and that made him happy, so he wandered off in that direction.

"'True love, that's your pitch?' Uhm… Doesn't seem like something Barry would say. But it sounds vaguely familiar… Do we know anybody else who talks like this?"

Iris approached, and put one hand on Barry's back. It felt good. He leaned in towards her. She started speaking, and he heard about half of it. "...met him twice… really him… time travel…" Cisco replied, but Barry couldn't focus on what he said. He needed to get the symbols out, before it was too late, too late, too late to… What was he trying to do?

It took him several hours to get the message out and clear his head, and it took the entire team a month to interpret the scribbles. Barry managed to explain that he carried whatever time magic Len had absorbed, and that they could free him from wherever he stayed when he didn't manifest inside the Speed Force. (He only told Iris about exactly how Len had transferred it to him. She slapped his arm, like she had done whenever he fell in love before they got together, and then she demanded details.)

Actually getting Len out was much, much harder. It required Cisco's Vibe powers, and both Wally and Barry running around the particle accelerator, plus some advanced tech that Gideon had been able to help them figure out. They did succeed, and a newly resurrected Len stood before them, naked. Naked, and definitely not ashamed of himself. Barry couldn't help looking him over, from head to toe and back again.

Len nodded. "Barry."

Barry blushed, feeling found out. "Len, good to have you back. Uh, we should have some extra clothes around here somewhere…"

Iris came to the rescue, clothes in hand, and with a bottle of water for good measure. Barry watched her check Len out, as discreetly as she could, and tried not to say anything. Len didn't say anything, either, but he smirked at her. Once he was dressed, and they all had moved into the Cortex again, he took them both aside.

"Sorry for the Oculus transfer, Barry. It was the only way."

"I, uh, didn't mind much… A little warning would have been nice."

"I don't mind, either," Iris said. "I know how you did it, and I definitely do not mind."

"Why, Miss West," Len drawled, but Iris interrupted him.

"It's Ms West-Allen, you know. We got married a month ago. Barry remembered some of what you told him in the Speed Force, not that it had anything to do with why we got married. But we're ready now, if you are. At least ready to get to know you, and we'll take it from there." She leaned in, one hand at Len's neck. "But since Barry is one step ahead, I'd like a kiss first."

They kissed, and Barry was ready to explode. Seeing two people he desired together was amazing. The kiss was short, and not that dirty, but it was enough for him to think about a long list of things he'd be interested in trying.

He heard a gasp from behind them, and turned. Cisco stared at them, red liquorice hanging from the corner of his mouth. "You! You two!"

"We three, actually," Barry said, taking Len's hand. "It's been a long day, Cisco. We've helped Len get back to life as we know it. So, you can yell at us later, even if I'd rather you didn't. We still need to work on figuring stuff out, but now? We're going to crash, at home. Just the three of us."


End file.
